The Reading Promotion Project is a celebration of teacher innovations. Each district is invited to send one teacher as their Reading Promotion Project winner. District that participates receive a Boston fern to present to that winning teacher. Each year at the Spring Meeting, the selected teachers submit a one page synopsis and a display board showing pictures, articles, etc. The displays are set up in Strauss 148 by 8:30 A.M. and judging begins at 9:00-9:30 A.M. Judges are LRA officials or members from other councils.

The winning Reading Promotion project representative displays the board at the LRA Leadership in July and receives room, meals, and mileage expenses. The winner is also submitted as the Celebrate Literacy Award Winner for the upcoming school year for LRA and NELRC.

That upcoming school year, the winner documents all activies and submits the NELRC's Celebrate Literacy Award application to LRA for NELRC for competition.

GIFT was a primary piece of the K-3 Initiative Plan implemented in our Title I schools to reach the needs of all students by training teachers in successful strategic teaching and learning techniques.

The 5 W’s of GIFT
What: Good Innovative First Teaching
designed to better meet the needs of today’s children
based on assumptions of balanced literacy
connects the teacher and the child
Who: Designed for teachers in grades K-3 who were:

aware that they weren’t meeting the needs of their
children to the best of their ability

looking for ways to improve the teaching and learning
in the classroom

When: Taught in three segments (initially)

Summer Institute
Saturday meetings
Evenings
Where: Meetings will occur at two different locations:

Summer institute at Rayville Elementary
Other meetings at Richland Parish School Board
Why: Times have changed – critical skills for success today

requires a shift in thinking and consequently in teaching

and learning. We must embrace the Why behind the

HOW of our teaching.

The following was submitted by LRA Chairperson
Louisiana Reading Association
Literacy/Community Projects Committee Report
April 7, 2005
Five councils recently nominated people or groups from in or around
their area
for the 2004-2005 Louisiana Reading Association’s Literacy Award. The
councils and their nominees were:

-Jefferson Reading Council Nominee: Aretha Eldridge-Williams

-Northeast Reading Council Nominee: Carolyn Harden

-Sabine Reading Council Nominee: Rebecca Stickell

-Southeast Reading Council Nominee: Dr. Cynthia Tricou

-Title I Special Interest Council Nominee: Live Oak Preschool Center

The members of the LRA’s Literacy/Community Projects Committee read
over the
nomination application packets and scored each based on the impact the
nominee
had on promoting literacy in the community. Scores from “1” (low) to
“3”
(high) were given. The scores were then averaged together, and the
person/group with the highest overall score was chosen as the winner of
the
award. Below is a list of the nominees and their average score.

Aretha Eldridge-Williams Score: 3

Carolyn Harden Score: 1.75

Rebecca Stickell Score: 1.5

Dr. Cynthia Tricou Score: 2.75

Live Oak Preschool Center Score: 1.75

Aretha Eldridge-Williams from the Jefferson Reading Council was chosen
as the
winner. It was unanimously agreed upon by members of the committee
that she
went above and beyond the call of duty to promote literacy in her area.

All members of the community were sent application packets and invited
to
respond. Many thanks to the following members, who took the time to
read the
information and sent in their scores: Sharon Gilmore, Ellen Marino,
Abigail
Sebastian, and Marilyn Westfall. Shawn Messina, head of the committee,
refrained from voting because of her role on the committee and in her
local
council (Southeast).

If anyone has any other questions or concerns, they should feel free to
contact me at: 985-549-2206 or at shawn.messina@selu.edu
Thanks,
Shawn Messina

Objective: The student will identify and understand the steps in a process,
connect ideas and tell special events in a story

Introduction: Read the book The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco

Review: What is a family quilt?
A family quilts displays interesting facts about your family through
pictures. You don't need to know how to sew to make your family quilt. All you need to do is draw or make paper cutouts.

Things needed for making your family quilt:

* several squares of paper measuring six inches by six inches (the number depends on how many facts and events you want to show in your quilt)
* a large sheet of cardboard or poster board
* glue
* markers, crayons, and/or colored paper
* scissors

Steps in making your family quilt:

1. Make a list of family facts and events you would like to include
in your quilt. If you want to include nine facts or events, you'll need nine squares of six-inch paper. If you want to include twelve facts or events, you'll need twelve squares.
2. Each square on your quilt will be a picture of somebody or something important to you and your family. Does your brother play the piano? Draw a picture of him surrounded by musical notes. Do you have an aquarium? Paste fish on one of the squares. Did you go on a vacation last year? Include a drawing about that too.
3. If you want, you can have your siblings and parents design squares
for the quilt. Then have each person sign and date his or her square.
4. Glue the squares onto the cardboard or poster board. If possible, you
may want to laminate your quilt so the entire family can enjoy it for
a long time. It might even become a family heirloom.
5. Students will explain their family quilt.

Results: Students were able to put together keepsakes of family memories
showing interesting facts about various family activities.

Students were paired up with different persons each six weeks and read an assigned book. "Buddies" communicated weekly about what had been read through journal writing. Then each phase of the project was ongoing for one six weeks with a total of four phases.
A classic learning model for this project was utilized: Six weeks of teachers modeling, six weeks of guided practice with class peers, six weeks of independent practice, and six weeks of synthesis evaluation.
At the beginning of the second six weeks of school students were given a book that was read in class with little outside reading. As each chapter was read, the teacher and the student communicated through journal writing to discuss the book. This was a learning time for all with time set aside for discussion on how to improve written communications. Students completed a prewriting survey/journal activity to be used as a comparative writing sample and to determine technology skills he/she possesses.
The next six weeks the student was assigned a new book and paried with a classmate to communicate via journal writing. At the end of this time the class discussed more methods to imporve communitcation and how points of view vary from person to person.
as student entered the fourth six weeks they began another book. This time the learner was paried withanother adult within the school. The "buddies" passed the books and journal back and forth as they read to communicate thoughts and ideas about what had been read. No one was allowed to read ahead of the assigned pages, so that parts of the story are not given away.
During the final segment of the "BOOK IT WITH A BUDDY" project, students werer provided with a variety of books to choose from. Each student was assigned a mentor from the community who will partner with the student to e-mail journal writings. No more than three student from each class were allowed to read the same book. There were ten titles for student to choose from., At the end of the project studnt will coj0let a post-writing journal/survey activity that will be compared to the pre-writing journal/surevey. In this way students' growth in learning, writing, and technology skills can be evaluated for improvement.
During this project student participated in keyboarding classes, instruction in the usage of Internet and online communications, instruction in writing and the mechanics of language, instruction in methods for improving and increasing reading comprehension. Each class (2 classes) received two hours of instruction each day.
Student journaling provided opportunites for students to practice the mechanics of writing, so that writing skills improved and growth in writing skills were demonstrated over a period of time. The journaling also provided opportunities for students to practice writing appropriate content in journals and e-mail with support and feedback from the teacher and journal partners. The electronic journal encouraged students to master the technology skills needed to effectively communicate online so that he/she was able to respond adequately to entries from his/her e-mail partner. The AR (Accelerated Reader Program) was used to evaluate students' comprehension of each book read. Using this program comprehension growth was measured over the length of the project.
Students were encouraged to learn through teacher feedback, parent and community support, daily instruction, classroom access to the Internet, and formal grades. They were also motivated by evidence of growth from the beginning survey to ending survey. A "Social" will be held at the end of the project for students and community mentors to meet and interact in person.